Tungsten Mine Crisis and Protection

Huge reserves of tungsten mine creates value as well as brings a resource crisis, just like China's rare earth events, policy makers have realized the seriousness of the problem and introduced corresponding protection measures.

Chinese tungsten resources ranked first in the world due to its reserves, production and exports for a long time, and were called “three firsts” by people in the industry. However, after years of exploitation, China has faced a serious tungsten resource crisis.

In order to alleviate the gradual depletion of tungsten resources, government has increased its exploration efforts and achieved good results. From the analysis of tungsten reserves, there is not much tungsten in China can be mined. According to statistics, from 2003 to 2011, China's tungsten ore reserves decreased from 4.2 million tons to 1.9 million tons, a decrease of 54.8%.

However, in the case of reduced reserves, the actual production of tungsten concentrates in China far exceeds the national quotas for mining, and the problem of over-exploitation is very serious. Taking 2015 as an example, the total quota of tungsten concentrate mining was 91,000 tons in quota, but the national tungsten concentrate production was nearly 120,000 tons, the over-exploitation ratio exceeded 30%!

Therefore, the storage and mining ratio of tungsten in China is significantly lower than the global average. China's tungsten resource storage-production ratio in 2012 has dropped to 9.4, far below the global average of 21.94.

Even more, the relatively cheaper black tungsten ore is getting closer to the depleted status, as for scheelite, which accounts for 70% of the national tungsten resource reserves, it has a large reserve, but 85% of the resources do not reach the minlevel. It is difficult to develop and utilize, and can’t compete with black tungsten ore.

Although the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China has issued the “Total Control Index” for national tungsten concentrate mining, some investors focused on short-term benefits and wasted resources to develop disorderly tungsten resources, which leads to serious over-exploitation and the environment has been greatly damaged.

The depletion of resources has also caused local economy to face a crisis, taking a typical example: the former "Tungsten Capital" – the Dayu country in Jiangxi province, according to statistics in 2013, the existing tungsten mine can be mined and used were only 61,600 tons, and mining period is less than 10 years. In November 2011, Dayu county was identified by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China as the third batch of resource-exhausted city.

In order to protect limited tungsten resources, policymakers have taken a series of protection measures in recent years. Take Dayu county as an example: Since 2013, more than 40 small mines have been closed, 32 large-scale mineral rights certificates have been cancelled, 9 green mine construction pilot projects have been carried out, and 3 landscape forest lake ecological protection and restoration projects have been promoted. Dayu focus on the development of tourism and strives to reshape the green mountains and green water. It is hoped that through a series of measures, tungsten mine surroundings will be recovered soon.

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